NEW YORK -- Even before Hurricane Georges' 110 mile-per-hour winds
touched down on Puerto Rico yesterday, the Bell Atlantic Foundation
awarded a $25,000 grant to the New York-based Hispanic Federation to
support disaster relief efforts.

In addition, the Foundation will match funds from Bell Atlantic employees
who wish to make personal donations to aid storm victims in Puerto Rico
and the Dominican Republic.

"Our customers and our employees have many friends and family in Puerto
Rico and the Dominican Republic, and we want to lead with this major
grant to the Hispanic Federation for this disaster relief effort," said Carlos
Santiago, vice president - Ethnic and Premium Markets for Bell Atlantic.
"We also call on other major companies to help support this effort."

The Hispanic Federation's relief fund -- Ayuda a Los Pueblos ("Help the
Towns") -- is designed to provide monetary relief in towns where it's
needed the most. The Federation will pass 100 percent of the funds to
local non-profit agencies in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Bell
Atlantic supported the Federation as it set up the fund in 1996, when Bell
Atlantic donated $25,000 to victims of Hurricane Hortense.

"We are grateful to Bell Atlantic for making the first corporate contribution
to the Hurricane Georges relief effort," said Lorraine Vazquez-Cortes, the
newly named president of the Hispanic Federation. "The corporate
leadership exhibited by Bell Atlantic is exemplary, and we hope that other
corporations will follow its example and give as generously to this effort."

This is the third major grant the Bell Atlantic Foundation has made this
year to aid storm victims. In January, Bell Atlantic contributed to relief
efforts resulting from ice storms in New York and New England, and this
summer Bell Atlantic contributed to programs for victims of severe storms
and flooding in West Virginia.

Also, in the midst of Hurricane Bonnie, Bell Atlantic recently installed a
new high-speed, fiber-optic-based communications service for the Federal
Emergency Management Agency to allow hundreds of thousands of people
to simultaneously access FEMA's web site.

"At Bell Atlantic, we are dedicated to the communities we serve, and this is
particularly true in times of crisis," Santiago said.

The Bell Atlantic Foundation supports a variety of projects domestically
and internationally, with an emphasis on new technology applications in
education, health and human services, the arts and humanities, and civic
development in the communities served by Bell Atlantic. For more
information, visit www.bellatlanticfoundation.com on the Internet.

Bell Atlantic is at the forefront of the new communications and information
industry. With more than 41 million telephone access lines and more than
seven million wireless customers worldwide, Bell Atlantic companies are
premier providers of advanced wireline voice and data services, market
leaders in wireless services and the world's largest publishers of directory
information. Bell Atlantic companies are also among the world's largest
investors in high-growth global communications markets, with operations
and investments in 23 countries.